The present invention relates to bed restraints and, in particular, to a removable restraint which is incorporated into a bed covering or sheet rather than into the bed frame or mattress.
Permanently mounted or removable rail or bar restraints are widely used to prevent children or the incapacitated from falling out of bed. Restraints for children's beds are available in several forms. These include longitudinal sidebars which are part of or are permanently mounted to the bed frame itself. Children's restraints also include rails which are mounted on uprights so that each rail assembly can be removably mounted or clamped on the bed frame or inserted between the frame and the mattress. Restraints for the incapacitated are typified by hospital beds which incorporate metal side rails that can be pivoted to a horizontal or down position to permit getting into and out of bed and to facilitate changing bed clothes and administering to the patient.
A second type of bed restraint is one in which the restraint is incorporated into the mattress itself. As described in Ikeda, U.S. Pat. No. 4,286,344, issued Sept. 1, 1981, the mattress construction includes an integral, multiple layer, semi-circular longitudinal and/or transverse elastomeric ridges or air bladders (FIG. 8 of Ikeda) which function to prevent a user from falling off the sides of the mattress. The elastomeric ridges can be formed integrally with the mattress (FIGS. 1, 2) or formed as separate C-shaped, self-clamping structures (FIG. 9). This mattress restraint quite apparently requires the use of non-standard, custom-fitted sheets. In addition, the mattress restraint and the various frame restraints described above involve relatively complicated structures and manufacturing processes, are not readily interchangeable between beds and, in the case of frame mounted restraints, are permanently attached to the frame.